A huge benefit of living at Lake Chapala has to be the year-round glorious array of fresh produce.
Is there a better surprise than to discover that fresas (strawberries) and frambruesas (raspberries) have a second season…in the winter?
Just wait until we share with you our local prices for these beautiful ripe berries.
Central Mexico has been known for her strawberries for several centuries. In fact at one time Irapuato, a small city in the nearby state of Guanajuato was considered the strawberry capital of the world. While the US (especially the central California coast) and Russia are now the world’s top strawberry growing nations, enough strawberries grow near Irapuato for the towns residents (and the town’s soccer team) are known as the Fresneros. Compare that to the Huskers from Nebraska, Wisconsin’s Cheeseheads, Iowa’s Hawkeyes and 
the Buckeyes from Ohio
Here on Mexico’s high central plateau where the climate resembles “eternal spring” it makes sense that strawberries would do well. But raspberries need a dormant period. They need winter.
It’s colder here this winter than it has been for several years, but it never freezes here and the raspberries are certainly not dormant…they’re bigger and sweeter than usual. How do they do it?
Many of you north of the border purchase small pristine plastic boxes of red raspberries in your local grocery stores. One of the most respected US berry-growing companies came to Lakeside 10 or 15 years ago to experiment with a new crop at Lake Chapala…raspberries.
Neat rectangular fields near Jocotepec were planted with raspberry roots that had been in cold storage to simulate a winter dormant season. To protect the growing canes, they covered each field with plastic fastened to arched supports.
The experimental fields, irrigated with clean water, were a huge success; the company planted more raspberry roots, and then blackberry and strawberry plants until white plastic Quonset huts popped up like dandelions around the west end of the lake. This area is now one of the berry-growing industry’s important micro-climate; top quality berries are picked and exported year-round for the tables of US consumers.
Most savvy consumers here at Lake Chapala skip right over the tiny plastic clamshell boxes in the produce section’s refrigerated section and head straight outside to buy locally grown strawberries, raspberries and blackberries in quart containers.
Talk about good news, most of the berries we buy by the quart were just a bit too ripe and a bit too large to weather the trip to the US. How lucky is that. We get the ripest and biggest for our own tables at the best prices of all.
So, What do They Cost?
Today the quart containers outside SuperLake and Paz Liquor were selling for the following prices:
Strawberries - $15 pesos/quart ($1.21 US)
Raspberries - $20 pesos/quart ($1.62 US)
Blackberries - $25 pesos/quart ($2 US)
At stalls and stands in the tianguis (street market) and along the main highway through town, strawberries this month have sold for $14 - $18 pesos per kilo ($1.14 - $1.46 US for 2.25 pounds).
Mexico Insights Berry-Buying Tip:
Oh, by the way, you know those tiny plastic boxes almost filled with name-brand raspberries in the produce section of you favorite local Lakeside story? They’re fresh and good, but well traveled. These berries were grown in the same fields as the berries in the quart containers, but they’ve been shipped to the US and then shipped back to Mexico. It’s the only way for them to get on the local shelves!
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